"If he invited me to a public hanging," Hyde-Smith said on Nov. 2 while in an embrace with a cattle rancher, "I'd be on the front row."

MLB's donation was made on Friday, three weeks after Hyde-Smith's comment.

"The contribution was made in connection with an event that MLB lobbyists were asked to attend," an MLB spokesperson said in a statement given to USA TODAY Sports. "MLB has requested that the contribution be returned."

"If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row"- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith says in Tupelo, MS after Colin Hutchinson, cattle rancher, praises her.

Several businesses, including Walmart, have asked for the return of donations over her comment.

San Francisco Giants owner Charles B. Johnson and his wife, Ann, also each donated $2,700 to the campaign, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

After considerable backlash, Hyde-Smith apologized during a televised debate with Democrat Mike Espy, saying, "There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statements."

Espy is vying to become the Mississippi's first African-American in the Senate since the Reconstruction.

Hyde-Smith also was captured on video making a joke about voter suppression, and photos posted to Facebook in 2014 show her with Confederate items and a caption reading, "Mississippi history at its best!"